Moscow says current administration ‘doing everything it can to drive bilateral ties into deadlock’ before incoming Trump government’
BY VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin accused US President Barack Obama’s administration Thursday of trying to damage relations with Russia to a degree that would make rebuilding them in the future a challenge.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin’s telephone conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump this week revealed a “shared desire to join efforts in the fight against terrorism” that creates a “good basis for future work on the Syrian problem.”
During the conversation, Trump supported Putin’s call for normalizing US-Russia ties, Ushakov told Russian news agencies. The two men agreed that bilateral relations “can’t be worse,” according to Ushakov, adding that Trump “expressed his readiness not only to normalize ties, but also develop them intensively in all areas.”

Trump’s office said in a statement following Monday’s call that “President-elect Trump noted to President Putin that he is very much looking forward to having a strong and enduring relationship with Russia and the people of Russia.”
Ushakov, meanwhile, alleged that the Obama administration is “doing everything it can to drive bilateral ties into such a deadlock that (it) would make it difficult for a new team to get them out from, if it wishes to do so.”
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